[roenxi]

> unmitigated potential risk

The risk does seem fairly mitigated, most of us will make it through today fine. The only part of my brain I can account for now is the 1x credit card worth of plastic, all the other bits are a mystery. Death was inevitable before the microplastics, remains inevitable after the microplastics and things seem fine so far.

We don't know much about the risks of anything. People regularly douse themselves with mind-altering substances and ingest the weirdest variety of stuff.

[rTX5CMRXIfFG]

Shortening your period of observation so that the effects have not occurred yet does not mean it’s “mitigated”.

And your philosophy of your own mortality is just as reductive, because humans have been trying to survive since time immemorial and do not actively work on their deaths unless in an unhealthy mental state.

[card_zero]

Seems like a more important problem, then, the part where people inevitably die. I mean compared to having some plastic in their heads.

[johnnyanmac]

I mean, what are we really going to do about it? So much chaos in the world, I don't think many are focusing on keeping plastics out of our body. No one's championing it.

[itishappy]

> The risk does seem fairly mitigated, most of us will make it through today fine.

This is an incorrect usage of the word "mitigate." To mitigate means to lessen the risk. Mitigation requires action.

I suspect you mean that the risks are "overstated."

[roenxi]

I barely think the risks have been stated at all. They found a correlation between high levels of microplastics in the brain and dementia. There is a correlation between a bunch of things and dementia. I expect there is a correlation between good health and dementia, unhealthy people would tend to die off young without the time to fall apart mentally.

[SmirkingRevenge]

Would be nice if just once these sorts of things could have beneficial effects.

[card_zero]

Like the ship-produced aerosols that seeded clouds, increased albedo, and cooled the planet, in what James Hansen has called a "Faustian bargain". We successfully stopped that with regulations.